News for November 16

News for November 16

This four-day week the class learned about solids, liquids and gases, made art inspired by the Spanish artist Salvador Dali and even wrote letters to members of the Canadian Armed Forces!

In math, the children tackled the concepts of reading and writing of time to the quarter hour (:15 and :45). The children reviewed the relationship between minutes/hours/days/weeks/months/years. In grade 2, students are required to read and write the time from analog clocks to digital time and digital time shown on analog clocks. It's the position of the hour hand that’s the tricky bit…

We finished reading aloud the chapter book, “The Hundred Dresses”. This book helped the children discuss and understand empathy in the context of teasing and bullying. This story was written over 70 years ago and was based on a true story. 

In science, the children were introduced to the three states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. We talked about how to identify each state and discussed examples of each.

In writing, the class began writing a new story about a little plastic stick figure. The students can now independently plan their stories and write the rough copies. These stories will become the third group of published books this year. 

In art, the students responded to a design challenge based on the famous painting “The Persistence of Memory” (1931) by the Spanish artist Salvador Dali. The children made collages of analog clock faces and drew a “story” around these pictures. They also learned about how to mount their art on backing paper to create a frame or border.

Our math contest, asking students in our school “How long is the school building?” is half over. It was very exciting to see children in the hallway writing down their answers and putting them in the contest box. The class finished their posters advertising our contest and these are now posted around the school. Our class also entered their estimates as well. The contest ends next Friday and the winners will be announced November 28th.

In guided reading, the children learned about how to compare information in a book by looking at and writing about what is the same and what is different.

As a connection to our study and observation of Remembrance Day last week, the students wrote letters to current members of the Canadian Armed Forces. The children sent their wishes for them to be safe and to come back home to Canada soon. They also sent copies of their individual messages for peace. The students addressed envelopes, added stamps and on Friday, we walked to the local Canada Post mailbox and mailed our letters.

Finally, each day this week (and next), groups of students have had a chance to read an announcement about our contest, on the school’s morning announcements. Everyone is doing a great job!

Books read aloud this week:

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (chapter book - finished)

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is to write a fiction story in the homework writing journal about a clock. There is also a math sheet reviewing analog and digital time concepts. This homework is due on THURSDAY, November 16, (since Friday is a P.A. Day).

 

Please note:

The cold weather has finally arrived! Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather. Each child needs a hat, a scarf and mittens in addition to a coat, snow pants and boots. Students are expected to be outside for 15 minutes recess in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon and for 30 minutes at lunchtime. All children MUST wear footwear at all times inside the school. Your child needs a pair of indoor shoes, to be kept at school, that he/she can independently put on and take off. An extra pair of mittens and a clean, dry pair of socks are also good to have in backpacks just in case they get wet.

Important Dates:

November 14 - Progress Reports go home

November 16 (evening) and November 17 (morning) - Parent/Teacher interviews

November 17 - P. A. Day - no classes

December 1 - P.A. Day - no classes

December 22 - Last day of school for 2017

December 23 - January 7 - Winter Holidays

January 8 - First day of school for 2018

(*For all holiday and P. A. Day dates, please go to the "calendar" section of the Toronto District School Board website at tdsb.on.ca.)

News for November 10

News for November 10

This week the class did a great job performing “The Remembrance Day Song” at the two school assemblies on Friday.

In math, the children reviewed linear measurement concepts and practiced using rulers correctly and using place value to order the length of items. We started to learn about analog and digital time. We discussed the parts of an analog clock and practised reading and writing time, to the hour and half-hour, using digital and analog clocks. We also looked at the relationship between minutes/hours/days/weeks/months/years. The students learned a poem to help remember the number of days in a month plus a way to use the knuckles on your hands to decide if a month has 28, 30 or 31 days. 

The class spent a lot of time talking about peace and Remembrance Day and preparing for our assembly performance on Friday. The children wrote 33 words about what peace meant to them. We chose 33 words because we formally observe Remembrance Day on the 11th hour on the 11th day on the 11th of November (11+11+11=33). The students made decorations for the gym for the assemblies on Friday. They made poppies, large paper peace cranes and used small paper cranes to create a large peace sign. We visited the flags near the office and saw the names of people who went to World War I and II that were former students of our school. We made a video of the children reading their peace messages. 

In guided reading, the focus was on strategies to deal with words we don’t know when we are reading. We can use the pictures in the stories, context clues and dictionaries. The children also had a lesson on how to use a dictionary to look up the meaning of words. Did you know that adults know and use over 10,000 English words?

We began a shared read aloud book called “The Hundred Dresses” to help the students have a discussion about empathy. Empathy is the Toronto District School Board’s character trait for November. Empathy is a very difficult concept for children to grasp, but this book does a very good job to help them understand the importance of knowing and acknowledging how other people feel. 

Finally, the class had some time to work on our math contest. Now we have a set of posters to advertise our contest around the school!

Books read aloud this week:

What Does Peace Feel Like? By V. Radunsky

The Hundred Dresses (chapter book about empathy) by Eleanor Estes

The Peace Tree of Hiroshima - The Little Bonsai With a Big Story by Sandra Moore

How to fold a paper crane

Folding a paper crane involves a lot of steps!

Here is a video that I made several years ago, that shows how to fold an origami peace crane.

https://youtu.be/QNy-V_K3RiI

Happy folding!

Math Resource for Parents

Parents often ask me how they can talk to their children about math at home. It has been my experience that students often think about math as something they only do at school! Therefore it can be very beneficial to use math language and concepts at home and in everyday situations, so your child deeply understands that math is everywhere. One can always count things, measure items, name shapes and look for patterns!

Here is a site with lots of ideas:

https://talkingmathwithkids.com

Update from Ms. R

The homework for this week is for each child to teach an adult some American Sign Language (ASL). The students have been working hard to learn the signs for the alphabet and basic numbers. The class has also learned the ASL signs to go with a Remembrance Day Song! After the lesson, the child must complete a reflection sheet reviewing how the lesson went, what they did well and how he/she can do better next time. There is also a math sheet reviewing measurement concepts. This homework is due on Friday, November 10, 2017.

Important Dates:

November 14 - Progress Reports go home

November 16 (evening) and November 17 (morning) - Parent/Teacher interviews

November 17 - P. A. Day - no classes

December 1 - P.A. Day - no classes

December 22 - Last day of school for 2017

December 23 - January 7 - Winter Holidays

January 8 - First day of school for 2018

News for November 3

News for November 3

This week the class learned about Halloween, Remembrance Day and measuring perimeter. We also made caramel apples, pom pom spiders and paper peace cranes!

In math, the students practised measuring things (straight lines and curved) using standard measurements. Did you know that you can measure a wavy line or a curved water bottle using a piece of string and then measuring the string? We talked about centimetres, metres and kilometres and how to determine the best unit to measure something. The class also learned about the concept of perimeter, or the distance around something, and how to calculate it by measuring the sides of something (like a book) and then adding up the measurements. 

We are going to have a school-wide math contest! After measuring the length of the school using the bodies of the students (it’s 90 children long), we talked about how long that is in metres. Then we discussed asking all the students in the school to estimate how long the school is and have a contest! We talked about how we could let the school know about our contest…posters, emails, morning announcements. So the children planned and started to create posters to put up around the school. How long do YOU think our school is?

We had a wonderful Halloween day together! In the morning, the children learned how to make caramel apples dipped in mini chocolate chips. In the afternoon, the class went on two Halloween parades, lighted their Halloween lanterns on their desks, (that they made last week), and enjoyed their apple treats while listening to a traditional Halloween story.

Each student learned how to make a small Halloween spider using pipe cleaners, beads and pom poms. Later in the week, the children solved some applied math problems using these spiders. Working with a math partner, the teams figured out how many caramels we used to make the caramel apples. Then the teams were challenged to count how many spider bodies, eyes, legs and beads were used to make the 21 spiders in our classroom. Did you know that to create our 21 Halloween spiders we needed to make 21 bodies, 42 eyes, 168 legs and 672 beads?

The children discussed different ways to tell a story. One way is to tell a story orally. The class listened to a Halloween story told aloud while folding and cutting paper. Then they tried telling the story themselves to reveal a surprise paper cut-out at the end of the story. 

In writing, the students used their spiders as inspiration to write short stories. After planning, writing the rough copy and editing their writing, the children had a chance to read their stories aloud to several children and hear some positive comments about their work.

In social studies, all the country research posters are now complete! At the end of the week, students picked their favourite fact that they learned and all the children were filmed showing their posters and sharing their facts. The posters will be displayed in our hallway next week.

In our small guided reading groups this week, the focus was on talking about how to remember information in a story when reading fiction books. One of the best ways is to “make a picture in your mind” while reading the details in the story.

The class began to learn about the symbols and history of Remembrance Day. So far we discussed the peace symbol (for nuclear disarmament), red poppies and paper peace cranes. The class learned the true story of a Japanese girl named Sadako, who was the inspiration for the traditional paper crane origami model becoming a worldwide symbol of peace. The students each learned how to fold origami paper cranes. The class also learned a Remembrance Day song, along with ASL signs to communicate the meaning of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, or 11:00 am November 11th as Remembrance Day in Canada. The principal, Mrs. Farrelly, even asked our class to perform this song at the school’s Remembrance Day ceremony next week!

Books read aloud this week:

Pig Pig Gets a Job by David McPhail

Halloween Is… by Gail Gibbons

Pattan’s Pumpkin - A Traditional Flood Story From Southern India by Chitra Soundar

The Tailypo - A Ghost Story by Joanna Galdone

Nate the Great and the Halloween Hunt by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

Sadako’s Cranes by Judith Loske